This invention relates to a wheel balancing device, and more particularly to multiple pre-formed wheel weights.
In the manufacture of pneumatic tires and also wheels and rims, it is extremely difficult to produce a tire or a wheel, or the combination of a tire and wheel to a degree of perfect balance. Therefore, there is a need for applying a counter-balancing weight to the wheel or rim to compensate for the imbalance. Heretofore, this need has been fulfilled by the application of lead weights molded around a steel clip which in turn is attached to the rim flange of the wheel.
Other types of lead wheel weights with different means of attaching the weights to the rims have been devised, as illustrated in the following patents:
U.S. Patents: 2,292,528 Kraft Aug. 11, 1942 2,585,802 Loewe Feb. 2, 1952 2,640,727 Kennedy June 2, 1953 3,154,347 Griffith Oct. 27, 1964 3,177,039 Skidmore Apr. 6, 1965 French Patent: 1,109,941 Antraique Oct. 5, 1955
The Kennedy, Griffith and Skidmore patents disclose that it is old to apply a unitary lead wheel weight to a tire or rim with adhesive means.
Both the Kennedy and Skidmore patents disclose that it is old to indent or notch a unitary lead strip into incremental weight values.
However, none of the above patents disclose a plurality of pre-formed, or pre-molded, uniform integral weights secured in end-to-end relationship upon an elongated tape having adhesive backing, for division or separation into predetermined weight values, by merely severing the tape.